Grafton Lions working to meet the needs of the children and families in Grafton

For more than 59 years the Grafton LIONS Club has served the
community in many various ways. 
From the annual favorite Concert On The Common to providing fuel
assistance, supporting the food bank, and helping residents get help with their
sight or hearing needs, the club has always stepped up to provide support.   The club has also sponsored college
scholarships, a youth speech contest, the annual Peace Poster contest and many
other activities to support the schools and community. 

Our world is rapidly changing, and so to are the needs of
our children and families. Recognizing this the Grafton Lions will be taking on
a new challenge, to help meet these needs.

Children are our greatest resource,
and we owe it to them to provide as many services and programs as we can to
meet their increasing social-emotional needs, and raise community awareness
about these needs.  In the coming months
and years we will be doing research into the needs and looking for the most
practical ways to meet them.  The first
of these programs will occur on March 4th.  We are proud to sponsor District Attorney Joseph D.
Early, Jr.’s Community & School Outreach Program on bullying.  It will take place at the Grafton High School
in the auditorium at 6:30.

The LIONS will also be sponsoring a free public
screening of the critically acclaimed documentary “Who Cares About
Kelsey”.  This film focuses on a teenage
girls struggle to make her way in the world, and how with the right supports
she was able to turn her life around. 
The film focuses on the issues of adolescent mental health, bullying and
preventing high school drop out and is produced in cooperation with the University
Of New Hampshires Institute On Disability. 
More information on the film and the project can be found at http://www.whocaresaboutkelsey.com/.  The film will be shown at the Grafton High
School auditorium on April 29th at 6:30 pm.  It will be followed by a panel discussion on
these issues.

The third part of the project is to offer free
character
education and parent education programs. 
Three four week programs will be offered starting this spring.  The charchter education programs will be
available to children in the 5th and 6th grades.  Research has shown that the best way to
prevent a child from becoming a victim of a bully is through teaching character
education and conflict resolution.  More information
on this program will be forthcoming.

The final piece of the program will be to conduct
a survey of needs from Grafton families and invite residents to join a
committee to look at youth and family services in neighboring communities and
the feasability of providing similar programs for our children and
families.  More information on this will
be presented at the viewing of “Who Cares About Kelsey” on April 29th.  For more information on any of these
programs, or information on becoming a Lion, you can contact Lion Frank Sutton
via the LIONS club on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/graftonmass.lions, or visit the Club’s website http://www.e-clubhouse.org/sites/graftonma/index.php